errors and â—…uperstitions they utteâ—…ly ruine both And therefore let your Honours who stand at the Helm take hâ—…ed of these devouriâ—…g shelves and rocks which without your 〈◊〉 care and help threaten our shipwrack and ruine Oh considâ—…r grave gratious and sage Senators what Innovations and Altarations have of late yeers been introduced into our Church How many of late yeers have been preferred in our Church by some of our principall Prelates who were either loose and lewd in their lives or lazy in their callings or Papisticall or Pelagianists in their opinions or superstitious in their practises or extollers of ceremonies above substance or set forms of prayer above conceived or of reading above preaching that thereby people might be nuzled up in ignorance What courses of late yeers have been taken to put down Lectures on the week day yea preaching on the Lords day in the afternoon That so people being deprived and robbed of the light of Gods Truth might stumble and fall into errors and be robbed of their souls and everlasting welfare What Popish and Arminian Tenents have been preached and printed of late yeers with the allowance leave license liking and approbation of some in authority in the Church What courses of late have been taken to discountenance discourage keep low and curb those who like Candles did consume themselves and their strength to give the benefit of light and knowledge unto others I mean who did not only labour to benefit their particular flâ—…ck and charge by their painfull and industrious preaching but also the whole Church yea future ages by their profitable writings What cursed and crafty care hath been taken of late dayes for the expunging out of Books tendred to the presse of Orthodoxe truths and grounds which overthrow those Tenents which are Heterodoxe I may say here Experto crede Richardo that sad experience hath taught me this truth But I passe it by because I hope your Honours in your depth of wisedome will take care for the rectifying of this abuse for the time to come I will conclude this with the saying of the Psalmist If the Lord had not been on our side now may the Church of England say If the Lord had not been on our side and with a strong * North winde turned the stream and hindred the proceedings of these wicked Achilles and Achitophels we had ere long been overwhelmed in the deluge of ignorance heresie superstition popery and blindnesse But blessed be God who hath hitherto delivered us from this danger and the Lord in mercy so blesse your Honours and all your proceedings and undertakings that this jugling legerdemain and water-mens tricks to look one way and row another may be more and more discerned and discovered by you to their shame but our rejoycing In the next place the point propounded and proved may fitly be applyed to all your Honours now assembled and met in High Court of Parliament When Carthage was besieged by Scipio Hannibal sought for peace who never before that time refused warre professing ingenuously that he might better have lost all the battels within and beyond the Alpes thâ—…n one at the Gates of Cartbage for there he adventured nothing but the superfluity of youthfull bloud who sought their destiny in the field of honour under the banner of Mars but here the Common-wealth was laid to stake and they plaid their lives liberties wives children religion and all at one game I may aptly apply this Religious Senators unto you whom we have betrusted with our lives liberties estates Religions and all and therefore it behoves us all as those who fight pro aris focis to tug and wrestle with the Almighty God of Jacob for you That you may be One in the maintenance and furtherance of this one truth More particularly Two things we pray for you and of you Viz. 1. That you may be one amongst your selves And 2. That you may be a means to make us one Now of these in their order First We beseech you and we implore the throne of grace for you That all you may be like Jerusalem at unity amongst your selves The Fowler is to be condemned of folly who takes in hand to talk or treat of hunting and the Merchant is counted mad who meddles with the rules of Astronomy But it is allowed to every man to treat and talk of his own trade and to discourse of those things which concâ—…rn his own calling a and therefore seeing I do not read a Lecture of Law or state policy unto you but keep my self in my own element of Divinity I hope your Honours will not only bear with me but as Credendum artifici in suà arte so also give credit to what I speak Indeed it may be said That the Sowe teacheth Pallas and the Asse Apollo when Phormio treats of warre before Hannibal or an ignorant Attorney of law before the learned Judges or a weak Divine of the peace and distractions of the Church before or unto those Divine Spirits who have long made the causes effects and remedies thereof their chiefest study and observation But because I bring a message unto you the Lords Jehues who are by him appointed for the purging out of allidolatry out of our Church Let not the meannesse or weaknesse of the Messenger be the least let to hinder your Honours from hearing and bearing the word of exhortation patiently Yea because I come unto you from the Lord and in his Name be pleased although I am unworthy to speak unto you to be exhorted To be one and to adhere to this holy Vnion of Truth and as far as you go in matters of Religion and the Church to proceed by that One Rule of Truth and to minde one thing b and in your rowing to strike altogether c and in your grave and godly Assembly to drink one to another in Philothesius his cup d and to conspire altogether e for the establishiâ—…g of this holy Vnion of Truth amongst us and to preserve the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of peace amongst your selves f Three things I have here to recommend to your Honours most serious consideration Viz. 1. The Motives which should move perswade you to be one 2. The Manner wherein you must be one 3. The Means wherby you may be one And of these in their order First The Motives which should incite and induce you to be one are these Viz. 1. Because great must our misery needs be if you should be Many The Proverb saâ—…th Quot capita tot sensus So many men so many mindes but God forbid that ever we should take up this Proverb of you who are our Patriots our publike parents our Guardians and Law-givers and therefore if you jar or differ we perish g What a Greek Poet said once of Megalopolis in Arcadic sâ—…ffingly The great City is become a forsaken Wildernesse h must needs be said of
doctrine both in regard of God Christ the Word and Faith Oh let your Honours who Minibus pedibusque contend for the glory of Goâ—… the honour of Christ the purity and perfection of the Scriptures the common Faith and pure profession of the Gospel continue to be one in weakning the power of Antichrist by denying him all priviledge and power and his doctrine all favour freedom or friendship amongst us And thus your Honours see Wherein you should be one to wit In relieving the oppressed in punishing the wicked in fast rooting and re-establishing of Religion in taking away of all offensive Ceremonies and in rooting out and removing from us as much as in you lyes all errors heresies schismes superstitions idolatry and popery But it may be some will say That as Aristotle sets out a happy man Tully an Orator Plato a Common-wealth the Italian his Courtier but could never finde any such as they described so I have portrayed such an Union and Unanimity as can scarce ever be found or probably be hoped for or exspected in so great an Assembly But let not this be any bridle to keep you back but rather a spur to prick you forward to an earnest desire and endeavour thereof remembring 1. That as the Phenix is the more desired because seldom seen and the Gem more desired because very rare and the stones of Arabia of high price because exceeding strange even so the rarer such an Unity and Union is amongst so many the more remarkable notable and famous it will be to all succeeding ages and make the Cornets of fame eccho and sound forth your praises on earth when your souls enjoy the joyes of the Kingdom of Heaven And 2 Endeavour earnestly after this Unity and Unanimity in the advancing of the truth and true Religion remembring That Christ hathe treated his Father and your Father to work this holy Unity of minde opinion and spirit in you as Alexander the Great commanding his souldiers to ascend a Mountain dangerous and full of Snow and perceiving them timerous leaped off his horse and led them the way and then they courageously followed So your Honours to your great comfort and encouragement may please to observe how your Captain and Commaâ—der the Lord Christ hath led you the way and given you an example and encouragement to endeavour after this Unity by his prayer unto God for it For whether we conceive these words Father I pray that they may be one as the Lords will explained to us or as his petition offered to his Father who is so well pleased in him r as he heard him in his requests s and will deny him nothing for then he could not have been a sâ—fficient Saviour It shews one and the same thing unto us viz. That all the living members of Christs Church who are assembled for the purity and peace of the Church according to his will and desire must be and by vertue of this his prayer shall be conjoyned in one holy and spirituall bâ—…nd of Unity And thus much for the second thing we observed to wit Wherein your Honours should be one Now Thirdly We have in order to prescribe the Means whereby you may be one but because they are divers I will therefore be the briefer in them The Meanes are these namely First Labour that you may all be the faithfull of the Lord and the Lords faithfull ones and then he will make you one for the good of his Church as is implicitely promised in this His prayer as was shewed before The members of the body will admit of no fractions divisions rents nor jarres amongst themselves but have all one joynt desire and endeavour for the good of the whole because that good which is communicated to the whole is extended to all and every each member of the body Even so if all the members of your Honourable Assembly be the faithfull members of Christ then he will so unite your hearts affections desires and endeavours that as one man you shall all labour afâ—…r this holy Union of truth Secondly Because either Christ must work this holy Unity of Truth in you or you cannot have it another means to procure it is prayer unto him and that both by the Commons and Common-wealth for you anâ—…by you for your selves But I enlarge neither of these because in my pious mans practise in Parliament time which I put forth at the beginning of the Parliament to teach the faithfull of the Land their duty in the time and for the continuance of this Honourable Assembly I have largely and amply shewed and handled the first of these viz. How the Land should assist your Lordships with their prayers unto the Lord of glory for you and by and by I shall touch upon the second viz. How your Honours ought to petition the Throne of grace for this grace of truth and unity of Spirit amongst your selves Thirdly Let your meeting convening and assembling together be in the Name of Christ and then according to his promise he will be present with you t I need not enlarge this because Vincentius himself consesseth u That when the Rulers or Governours of a City Church or Land are gathered together for the good and benefit of the City Church or Land they are then gathered together in the Name of Christ who according to his promise will be in the midst of them But your Honours are thus convened and gathered together and therefore in the name power spirit and vertue of Christ and consequently he will be in the midst of you that is he will be present with you and president amongst you Wherefore if as you are assembled by the power of Christ with an unanimous accord desire and endeavour you make his glory the advancement of Religion the peace of the Church and prosperity of the Common-wealth your prime and principall end and aym then Christ will be both present with you and president amongst you And so this shall be a third means to procure this holy Union and Unitie of Truth Fourthly Another excellent means to procure this grace is a serious and sedulous animadversion of the benefit which will redound thereby both unto our Church and State On remember for the Lords sake remember That if ye be one in minde affection opinion and spirit and that you all minde and speak and desire one and the same thing that then peâ—…ce and joy shall be heard in our streets righteousnesse shall break forth and shine in our Church prosperity and plenty shall attend our Common-wealth and both Church and State shall have cause to blesse you and to blâ—…sse the Lord for you and daily to invâ—…cate the Throne of grace for a blessing upon you both in body and soul who by your Unity Union and Unanimity have bâ—…en under God a means to turn our sorrow into joy our fear into bâ—…pe our ruines into repaires our darknesse into light our
injunction to confesse our selves nothing o and unprofitable servants p and the denyall of the world which startled and amazed the very Apostles q and makes men go to true Religion as a Bear to the Stake But now touching Errors it is otherwise for as Alcibiades covered his Pictures being Owls and Apes with a Curtain embroidered with Lions and Eagles and as Silenus his Pictures were without Lambs and Doves but within Tygers and Vultures so error is gilded and painted over with such delightfull colours and so perfumed as it strongly entangles naturall affections Such are the Familists wanton communion the Perfectionists lazy rest from the use of the means and all Christian War-fare the Papists pardons for money and their outward pomp and bravery in Processions Altâ—…rs Shrines Rood-losts and other vanities in the service of their Churches serving only to allure simple people Such are also the Mahometists promises of pleasant Gardens sumptuous and pleasant Palaces stately Horses many Wives c. in the life to come to which things mans nature easily listens And this is the first cause why errour is more readily embraced than the truth And therefore let your Honors care and endeavour be to suppresse all those doctrines and opinions which are pleasing and sutable to our corrupt natures but pernicious and finfull for our souls 2. Another cause hereof is the manifold wickednesse of mans corrupted heart which as a slime brought in by the inundation of sin breeds many poysonons Serpents of dissention As for example 1. In some the onely shallow humour of new fanglednesse like Athenians ever delighting in Novelties r No sooner doth Sathan raise a smoke of Novell errors but these puffs of winde blow abroad the tume thereof into all mens eyes Never was error devised so monstrous against God or so absurd against common reason but there were some found who would embrace it What mad man or Idiot would beleeve that Simon were God or Menander Christ or Montanus the holy Ghost or that the Serpent which deceived Eve should be worshipped of us except some papist should parallel it with the Spear which wounded Christ yet thus subtill Satban taught and thus simple men beleeved And 2. In some the vain pride of ambition occasions errors or a desire to be called Rabbi s and with Diotrephes to have the preheminence t and to speak proud and perverse things and draw Disciples after them u These men delight to broach new opinions and to be holden inventers of new Tenents So Theodotus Proclus and others were followers of Montanus and also the Cataphrygians but they in their singular pride called their heresies by their own names Magno fastu proprias a se denominaton haereses condiderunt x And I would to God England were free from that vanity And 3. In others a froward stubborn wilfulnesse occasions the spreading of errors who will obstinately defend whatsoever hath casually dropt from their pen or tongue So Theodotus having for fear of death abjured Christ defended it afterwards by saying He denyed not God because Christ was not God but onely Many y And this is one of the papists chief principles To confesse nothing erroneous which their Church hath taught at any time And 4. In very many the minding of earthly things z who teach things they ought not for lucres sake a and serve not the Lord but make them Gods of their own bellyes b and admire mens persons for advantage sake c There is a fish in the flood Aranis that at the waxing of the Moon is as white as Snow at the waning as black as pitch And there are many who seem very clear in doctrine and opinion so long as the truth is most promoted and approved by great ones but muddy and corrupt when errour is most favoured and advanced Their Religion is princo Regis and if King Henry be a papist King Edward a protestant Queen Mary of the one Queen Elizabeth of the other they will ever sail with the winde and row with the Tide and swim with the stream and imitate but the wrong way Hushai the Archite Whomsoever or whatsoever the people and all the men of Israel shall choose theirs will they be and there will they abide d And 5. In all the generall corruption of our nature which is ever wilfull and skilfull ready and able to dispute against the truth of God 1. Ready by our naturall disaffection the wisedom of the flesh being enmity with God is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be e wherefore the naturall man is called Averse from God f as having all our inclinations drawing away from him 2. Able by the perverse crasty wit we have learnt from Sathan who doth furnish us abundantly with arguments against every truth of God like to that Sophister who boasted That he had sometimes wanted conclusions to defend but never arguments to defend them withall And this brings in the third cause of so many dissentions which is Thirdly the subtill malice and malicious subtilty of Sathan who as he is in generall a perpetuall and indefatigable enimy of Christ his Church Religion and Truth so in this particular he racks his malicious wit to the highest strain to prepare and fit us for errors and errors for us 1. He prepares us partly by raising doubts in our mindes which he hath sometimes done in the mainest grounds of Religion as Protagoras saith it may be doubted Dii sint avnon Whether there be any God or not and partly by softening the courage and constancy of our mindes which should animate us to oppose errours and their abbettors under the shew of love peace and the spirit of meeknesse and which makes many forbear to reply when they see the truth strongly opposed and partly by suggesting to our mindes arguments against the truth of God Thus he hath taught men to dispute against the Creation of the world of nothing against the contents of the Ark against the renovation of so many millions of men by Noaâ—… and his three sonnes within three hundred yeers and even against the foundation of the Mystery of our salvation in both the natures of our blessed Saviour And 2. On the other side He prepares Errors for us and that these wayes viz. 1. By seasoning them to our tastes by observing our severall dispositions and fitting us with agreeable suggestions To the proud wit he suggests matter of novelty to the ambitious doctrines of prerogative to the worldly minded gainfull Tenents and to the loose affected doctrines of liberty As he made Evab his instrument to deceive Adam so he causes our Affections to betray our Judgement g And 2. He prepares errours for us by glazing and polishing them over that they may the more smoothly deceive And herein he hath plaid his Master-prize For although he daily suggests to man the same errours for substance wherewith
he infected former ages yet he doth so mould them a new and cast them into other forms Ut non cognosâ—… as cosdem esse that we cannot at first fight perceive them to be the same For example The doctrine of the now libertines is for substance the same which the Simonians hâ—…ld in the first infancy of the Church But the grosse Tenents which his boldnesse broached in former times that it was lawfull yea as some said requisite or rather as others necessary to follow all uncleannesse and so to please and delight those evill spirits to whom by nature we are subject were too broad for these dayes of light and knowledge And therefore he brings in this Harlot muffled with many distinctions sometimes between the upper and neither parts of the body after between the body and the spirit Lastly between the compreâ—…ending part and other parts of the soul Again Satan desires now as much as ever to reduce the pomp and idolatry of Rome into our reformed Churches but as the Fowler hides his nets with cheffe and himself with bushes and pipes sweetly as if there were nothing there but meat and melody so the devill covers his dangerous purpose with chaffy doctrines and hides himself under other pretences entertaining the simple with delightfull vanities in the mean time assaulting faith as perseverance of the Saints the All-sufficiency of the written Word and heavenly nature of saith c. and labouring to draw us back into some antiquated and demolished vanities of old used by the papists and disused in reformed Churches as Altars Cross s Tapers Images Pictures in walls windows garments and the like because these being once admitted will serve as so many graduall Steps to re-advance that Babylonish Strumpet to that Seat of Supreme and Spirituall Monarchy from whence by our fore-fathers she was iustly dismounted These three mentioned are main causes which fill the world with dissentions For errors are a pleasing bait our wanton appetite greedily embracing them and the devil as a skilfull Angler baits his hook of dissention with them that we may say as Anthoninus once said Vah Domine quis evadere queat O Lord who can escape But Fourthly there is another over-swaying cause of more power than any yea all of these and that is The fearfull wrath of our God delivering up those people to blindenesse and errour whose sinnes he findes ripe unto harvest It is dangerous when Sathan like a roring Lion goes about to deceive us h but much more fearfull when the Lord gives leave and permits him to tempt us i but then beyond all most desperate when our sinnes shall provoke the Lord to seal a Commission or Warrant to this deceiver Go thy way and thou shalt prevail k If men turn the glory of God to the similitude of sinfull man l whether the Prophet and people do wickedly m or the people sacrifice to the golden Calf n or set up Idols in their hearts o God will give up the people to serve the Host of Heaven p and even infatuate the Prophets for their sakes q and make their wayes slippery in darknesse that they may fall therein r and so give them up both priest and people to their own hearts lust and even unto a reprobate sense s For it is a just thing with God if we will not receive the Word of truth to send us strong delusions that we should believe lyes t yea to a people thus given over it will little avail them to have religious Princes Peers and Laws For God will effectuate his own will mauger all impediments u he can make foolish the wise Counsellours and send among them the spirit of errours x he can take away the heart of Princes and make them wander out of the way y yea he hath threatned to make our hearts fat z and smâ—…e us with the spirit of slumber that we shall not see for a recompence unto us a Thus your Honours have seen the causes of these differences dissentions and rents which are amongst us and it may now be expected that I should shew the remedies against those causes but I omit it Partly because I have amply shewed the duty both of Magistrates and people for the averting of spirituall as well as temporall plagues from Church and State in my Pious mans practice in Parliament time And Partly because I would not presume to teach a Dolphin to swim or direct your Honours our politick and Ecclesiastick Physitians what physick to administer or what receits to prescribe for the curing and recovering of our sick Church your own Christian care and consideration and pious prudence experience and knowledge being best of all able to direct you herein Thus much therefore shall suffice for the first prime particular of the second main generall viz. That we petition your Honours so to consider of our dissentions divisions and discord and the causes of them that you may use the utmost of your endevour and poweâ—… to suppresse redresse and take them away The other fellows Secondly the next thing which in the name of all true hearted English and sincere children of the Church of England I humbly beg of your Honours is That true Religion may be established in the unity of truth amongst us by you But it may be your Honours will here demand of me Which is that holy Unity of truth which You desire We should establish and be one in the firm rooting of I might answer unto your Honours That it is the true Religion of Christ But this doth but beget another question viz. Which is that true Religion of Christ Now though it were answer enough against the Papists to say That which the reformed Churches hold according to the written word yet this will not satisfie the doubt amongst our selves considering the manifold Tares of different opinions which Satan hath laboured to sow even in the midst of our Reformed Churches yea in the midst of our own Church of England I might here instance in Lutherans and Zwinglians in non-conformists and conformitans in Calvinists and Remonstrants and Socinians c. What shall we then say to this Shall we take upon us to determine which are true Tenents and which erroneous It were too great a pride to confine all differing learned men to my poor opinion lest they should say unto me When went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee a neither will I undertake a work of such arrogancy It will be I hope a more acceptable and profitable course to observe unto your Honours some few Rules and Remonstrances which may serve as Land-marks to overn and direct our doubtfull steps at least probably to find out that heavenly palace of holy truth where we may safely and securely set down our staffe and stay our selves 1. Take heed of innovating in Religion Innovation hath bin ever